Universe Guide Blog Articles Archive 6

Earth to Major Tim, Congratulations

15/12/2015 20:07

Major Tim Peake has finally arrived on the international space station after an eight hour journey from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, home to the Russian space administration, Roscosmos where all the visitors to the ISS take off. He is the first British astronaut sent up into space that was supported by the British Government. The first Briton in space Helen Sharman was financed by private donors with the support of the Russian Government. Other Britons in space such as Michael Foale and Piers Sellars had to gain American nationality to get into space with national aeronautics and space administration (n.a.s.a.) because the British Government had a policy of not providing support for Britons into space. That had recently changed and Tim Peake became the second Briton in space.

Space it should be pointed out is a multi-billion pound industry not just in the United States but also in Britain. British company Inmarsat provides and supports communications across the world through its numerous satellites. Logica I.T. Consultancy was unique amongst the major I.T. consultancy such as CapGemini and Accenture in providing Space Consultancy. They are now part of the CGI Group, a Canadian I.T. Consultancy and they carry on providing space consultancy.

Critics of space exploration say money should be spent on the ground and not wasted on space exploration. Those who do should look at N.A.S.A. site to see what inventions might not have happened had it not been for space explorations. The one that stands out the most is artificial limbs, the same limbs that help amputees get back on the ground and walking. NASA didn`t design cordless tools, they got Black and Decker to design and build the tools. 1. NASA also didn`t invent CT Scan or MRI scans but they designed the technology that would one day be used in those technologies.

Our future is space, this planet won`t be able to support us forever, our resources are dwindling, the population is ever-increasing and isn`t looking at slowing down any time soon. The critics will argue why mess up somewhere else when we can`t look after ourselves. The way we`re going, we`re probably going to end up like Coruscant the city planet in the Star Wars entertainment franchise. If we survive into billion years into the future somehow, the planet will become inhospitable and we`d have to get off it, either to Mars or further afield, maybe to an extrasolar planet (exoplanet) somewhere out there. By then, we may have broken Einsteins Law that says the speed of light is the absolute speed limit. If we did manage to get to light speed, it would still take four years to get to the nearest star Rigil Kentaurus, better known as Alpha Centauri.

There are two main space franchises, the biggest is Star Wars whose seventh movie episode is out at the end of the week. The second and oldest is Star Trek whose next movie is out next year to coincide with the fiftieth anniversary of the series. To coincide with the release of Star Wars - The Force Awakens, Paramount has released the trailer to their next movie, Star Trek Beyond which is out next year. The thinking is that a lot of those people who watch star Wars also watch Star Trek and would be interested in seeing the advert. The trailer in the trailers section of the Star Wars film.

In the previous rebooted films, the films have been centred around our Solar System as the crew of the USS Enterprise NCC-1701A find their feet but the new one will feature planets far away on their five year mission to find new and wonderful life. The lead antagonist is played by Idris Elba, who if you have read articles on the internet is the new James Bond even though Daniel Craig has not yet given up the role yet.

As predictable as night follows day, there was always going to be a sequel to the 1996 movie smash, Independence Day and no, its not called Thanksgiving Day or something like that. Its set twenty years later and the Aliens have finally decided to return and make our lives hell again, of course for our entertainment. Most of the original cast is coming back, the most notable not coming back is Capt. Steven Hiller played by Will Smith because the producers couldn`t afford him so its been said.

Jeff Goldblum returns as the Meteorological scientist David Levinson and so is his dad and the President but not the president any more though. Replacing Will Smith is Liam Hemworth a new pilot hero. Expect more patriotism and more action if either of those is your thing.

With the release of Star Wars - The Force Awakens just less than a week away, Star Trek has become slightly forgotten. Although that will change soon, when the new Star Wars film comes out, the trailer for Star Trek Beyond will be released alongside it as a massive coup for Paramount. Although Disney who now own the star Wars rights won`t care either way. To get everyone in the mood for Christmas and Star Trek, someone has put together a cool mock singalong by The Next Generation crew featuring Captain Jean-Luc Picard amongst others and it looks really good. SIt back, click on the picture below and enjoy.

Well, it certainly seems like it is from what is being said on the Internet. In a send-up of himself, Peter Jackson is seen cleaning his Academy Awards whilst The Doctor runs around manic in the background with a Dalek in the background. Therefore having a major hollywood director directing an episode of Doctor Who would be a major coup for the entertainment franchise. Its unlikely that they will produce a film Version of the series any time soon given how long movies can take. Peter Jackson cut his teeth and came to the worlds attention by making the Lord of the Rings trilogy into three cinematic movies. He had made previous films but it was the Rings films that brought him to the worlds attention.

In 2013, he had a bit part in a short comedic part as part of the Doctor Who celebrations which probably got the rumours started. The short clip below also got rumours as to whether The Silmarillion might be made into a television series or a film. Christopher Tolkein who worked on the Silmarillion didn`t like the movie adaptations so it remains to be seen whether the production company can gain the rights to the book.

Every year adverts come on our television to persuade to part with our money for presents. This year is no exception however, one particular advert by John Lewis has an astronomical feel to it. The story in the advert is of a little girl who spots a man on the the Moon when she looks through her telescope. She endeavours to try to reach out to the man evenutally sending up a christmas present to him. The advert has been had fun poked at and used by a rival corporation to advertise their telescopes.

One advert has the man on the moon replaced by Father Jack from Father Ted screaming as he does in the television series. Another advert has the little girl spotting the Nazis on the moon, reminiscent of the film Iron Sky where the Nazis retreated to after the second World War. Age UK also used the advert to highlight the plight of lonely people this Christmas as a serious side. The best one is by The Poke who spoofed the advert with a Star Wars take on the advert with Darth Vader replacing the man on the moon and its hilarious which you must watch until the end.

Disney has sprung a surprise with another trailer showing a couple of different scenes to the last one. However the trailer is aimed at the Japan market as the words on the screen are all in Japanese. Although the writing is in Japanese, the speech is all in English. There`s no new locations, there are new scenes such as where Finn and Rey introduce themselves to one another. Again, their surnames aren`t mentioned. Making a first appearance in the trailers is the golden translator droid C-3PO but again, there is no Luke Skywalker which the producers are doing a good job at hiding from people so it`ll be a surprise.

Its finally here, the trailer to Warcraft, the Movie. The story is set on Azeroth and is a film adapation of World of Warcraft, one of the last subscription based MMORPGs currently out there. It was last revealed that the game has 5.5 million players, down from 12 million players when the Lich King expansion was out in 2010-12. Blizzard Entertainment are hoping that this game might revitalise the interest in the game.

The film is set before the events of the game, when Humans come make first contact with the Orcs who have come through a portal from their homeworld of Draenor. Draenor is dying and so they travel through a portal to look for a new world. As this is set at the beginning of the game line, there is no Forsaken/Undead as they come later. Although there is a little deviation from the original storyline, the master storyteller of the original lore, Chris Metzen has had input into the storyline.

The graphics and imaginary look amazing and should disappoint the naysayers who were predicting the film would bomb. There had been reports that the distributers had called it a troubled film but it does look good though, as good as LOTR - Fellowship of the Ring and the rest. Only time will tell when it comes out next June.

Scientists have revealed that they have discovered a planet out there in the cosmos. In brief, a rogue planet is one that doesn`t orbit a star but free floats within the galaxy. The planet is referred to as PSO J318.5-22, a name that so easily rolls off the tongue. 1. The planet was discovered by scientists from Edinburgh University using a telescope in Chile. The planet was discovered in the Capricornusconstellation if you want to go looking for it yourself. If you are tempted to look for it, you`d need a powerful telescope as it won`t be visible by the naked eye. The planet is quite nearby, a mere 80 light years away compared to say the Tadpole Galaxy.

It is described as being a giant Jupiter gaseous planet rather than one like our own rocky type planet. The planet is estimated to be about 800 degress celsius so another reason why there won`t be any Alien civilisations living there. It is in the Beta Pictoris group of stars and a mere 12 million years ago whereas our own planet, Earth is about five billion years old. Artist impressions of what the planet may look like show it as a violet/purple colour. 2

I had always thought that Harrison Ford wanted out of the whole Star Wars franchise and this Star Wars - The Force Awakens was going to be his swan song. It stemmed from hearing that Harrison wanted his character to die at the end of Star Wars VI - Return of the Jedi which never happened. Well, according to IMDB, on their Episode VIII page, they`ve listed Harrison Ford as being one of the cast members. Whilst there is mention for Luke Skywalker, the other main characters aren`t there in the list. It remains to be seen if any of the other characters such as Chewbacca or Princess Leia will return. The news of the all important new female lead character who`ll join Rey and Finn against the First Order is eagerly awaited.

*SPOILER* Of what I have heard whether rightly or wrongly that a major character will die off. If I were a betting man I would put my money on a certain hairy character rather than anyone of the others given how old the actor in the suit is. For the droids, the people inside could be replaced by someone else as we don`t see their faces ever. As for C-3PO voice, it could be adjusted and a plausible reason given why the accent has changed. Whoever it is, he`ll be missed by the many star War fans out there.